Bad news. We regret to inform our community that we must close the Capital Hoedown Showdown Competition on OurStage. In recent weeks, it has been revealed that the festival is experiencing financial difficulties, resulting in venue changes and the loss of multiple headlining acts, including Taylor Swift, Reba, and Brad Paisley.

We had hoped that the festival would rebound from these setbacks in time for us to confidently stage a great competition. But given these recent developments, we feel it necessary to manage the expectations of our artist community and close the competition.

This is a disappointment to us all, and we regret any inconvenience our artists have experienced. We want to thank you for entering the competition, and for being a valued member of the OurStage artist community.

As always, if you have any questions, feel free to contact us at community@ourstage.com.

Over the past week, we have had to make some significant choices regarding the future of Capital Hoedown. After exploring several options and careful consideration, we’ve decided to move forward with this event for the Ottawa community. The decision is a direct result of the support and encouragement that we’ve received from our fans and partners. This has given us the confidence and drive to move forward. That said, we need to restructure in several areas to ensure that the festival is a viable venture; otherwise, we would have had to cancel the festival outright.

While the festival is moving forward, there will be some important changes. As a result of the City of Ottawa terminating its special event agreement with Capital Hoedown, preventing the event from happening on city property; the festival is being moved to a large private site located minutes from original venue. Until all the details are finalized, we cannot announce the new location. We are pleased with the site and the setting is ideal. We expect an official announcement confirming the new location this week.

Capital Hoedown will remain a three day festival; however, changes to the artist line-up will be announced shortly. We encourage fans to visit our website, www.capitalhoedown.net as often as possible for updates on the artist line-up. We can assure everyone that there will be favorable additions to the line-up that fans will be pleased with.

As mentioned last week, we want to ensure everyone that if for any reason they are not satisfied with the festival changes or revised line-up, they will be entitled to a full refund of their purchase. Refunds will be available beginning June 19th through their original point of purchase. By this time the complete revamped line-up will have been announced, and we hope that people will continue to support the festival.

Over the past two years, we have worked hard to present country music fans with two highly entertaining editions of Capital Hoedown. Our goal was to make this year’s festival bigger and better than ever, and the end result of this year’s festival will be nothing short of spectacular. We could not have done this without the support of our local fans and partners and we thank you for all your support and patience while we keep the vision alive.

Sincerely,

Denis Benoit, President & CEO, Concert International Inc.

OurStage will continue to keep you updated on the status of the “Capital Hoedown Showdown” Competition. If, due to the change in headliners, you are no longer interested in participating in the competition, you can withdraw your submission anytime before Semi-Finals.